Vail was awash with relief as he felt Victoria’s formerly motionless heart begin beating inside her once lifeless chest. The turning ritual had worked. She had survived. He wasn’t going to lose her just yet. Not wanting to smother her, he removed himself from the bed and sat down in the chair he’d dragged over to the side of it. The effects of her blood on his system had faded for the most part, but his senses were still heightened just enough that he could smell the new blood running through her veins. It was different than before, no longer human nor even appetizing to him in any way, but he supposed that was a good thing. After all, it meant there was no more reason for the Wynters to pursue her. They could never turn her into their slave again.

It took a while before she woke up. In the hour since the first beat of her heart, he stayed by her side without moving. At one point, his mother stopped by to check on them, seeking an update on the Crest heiress’s condition, but he ushered her off. There would be plenty of time for Victoria to be greeted by her family and his later, but he didn’t want her to be overwhelmed with a room full of people when she first woke up. Katherine had always been a gossip, so he decided not to tell her that the new vampire fledgling was stirring until she’d had a chance to orient herself to her surroundings.

At last, she gasped her first breath as an immortal, and he felt his own breath catch in his throat. His gaze had landed on her eyes the instant they’d opened, and he couldn’t help but stare. No longer were they the light blue color he remembered them to be. Now, they were a deep purple, unlike the irises of any human beings. It was a hue he’d only seen in a few vampires as well. Most of his kind shared the same spectrum of eye colors as mortals did, but there were a few who bore shades of red and purple and other “unnaturally” bright colors. He’d always found the latter dazzling, although he’d never envied those who were born that way. They often had a harder time blending in among humans than the vampires who, like him, looked human as long as they smiled without showing their teeth.

Nevertheless, the purple shade was dazzling against her porcelain skin, and he was transfixed by it until he saw her mouth open and close, as if she was trying to speak. The slight motion was all it took for his composure to leave him, and he hurriedly wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, practically pouncing on her in his delight that she had come back to him. Her body felt cooler to him than it had been when she was human, lacking the higher temperature that mortals ran, but it was something that was familiar to him, since it was like his own.

“It worked…” he murmured mostly to himself, closing his eyes as he buried his face against her neck. For the first time, the urge to sink his fangs into her throat was completely gone. There was no ulterior motive that went with the gesture; he just wanted to be close to her. However, he remembered abruptly that he [i]hadn’t [/i]wanted to smother her when she woke, so he pressed a swift kiss to her cold skin and pulled back to meet her mesmerizing purple gaze, smiling at her fondly, “Welcome back to the land of the living, my love.”